Learn how to form the imperfect tense of Italian verbs
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Marco: Hello, and welcome to ItalianPOD101.com, where we study modern Italian in a fun, educational format! |
| Consuelo: So, brush up on the Italian that you started learning long ago, or start learning today. |
| Marco: Thanks for being here with us for this lesson, Consuelo, what are we looking at in this lesson? |
| Marco: In today's class, we will focus on the imperfect tense, imperfetto. |
| Consuelo: This conversation takes place in a restaurant. |
| Marco: It's between Melissa, Ilaria, and Alessio. |
| Consuelo: They will be speaking informal Italian. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Melissa: Posso aprire i regali? |
| Ilaria: Certo! |
| Melissa: Apro prima la lettera. Ah un buono omaggio per l'estetista! Perfetto, sempre ben accetto! |
| Ilaria: E' quello accanto all'ufficio! |
| Melissa: Ah bene, comodo. E qui cosa c'è? Ah, un porta banana di plastica! Molto utile! Grazie! |
| Alessio: Sì, porti le banane nella borsa e le ammacchi sempre, a volte ti vedo mangiare una banana nera! |
| Melissa: E' vero, sai quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta! |
| Alessio: Quando stavi in America non parlavi neanche italiano, adesso sei proprio brava. |
| Melissa: Grazie, lo ha detto anche la nonna. |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Melissa: Posso aprire i regali? |
| Ilaria: Certo! |
| Melissa: Apro prima la lettera. Ah un buono omaggio per l'estetista! Perfetto, sempre ben accetto! |
| Ilaria: E' quello accanto all'ufficio! |
| Melissa: Ah bene, comodo. E qui cosa c'è? Ah, un porta banana di plastica! Molto utile! Grazie! |
| Alessio: Sì, porti le banane nella borsa e le ammacchi sempre, a volte ti vedo mangiare una banana nera! |
| Melissa: E' vero, sai quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta! |
| Alessio: Quando stavi in America non parlavi neanche italiano, adesso sei proprio brava. |
| Melissa: Grazie, lo ha detto anche la nonna. |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Melissa: Posso aprire i regali? |
| Marco: Can I open the presents? |
| Ilaria: Certo! |
| Marco: Certainly! |
| Melissa: Apro prima la lettera. Ah un buono omaggio per l'estetista! Perfetto, sempre ben accetto! |
| Marco: First, I'll open the letter. Ah, a gift voucher for the beautician! Perfect, always gladly welcome! |
| Ilaria: E' quello accanto all'ufficio! |
| Marco: It's the one near the office! |
| Melissa: Ah bene, comodo. E qui cosa c'è? Ah, un porta banana di plastica! Molto utile! Grazie! |
| Marco: Ah nice, convenient. And what do we have here? Ah, a plastic banana holder! Very useful! Thanks! |
| Alessio: Sì, porti le banane nella borsa e le ammacchi sempre, a volte ti vedo mangiare una banana nera! |
| Marco: Yes, you carry bananas in the bag and you always bruise them. I sometimes see you eat a black banana! |
| Melissa: E' vero, sai quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta! |
| Marco: It's true; you know, when I was in the United States, I barely ate fruit! |
| Alessio: Quando stavi in America non parlavi neanche italiano, adesso sei proprio brava. |
| Marco: When you were in the United States, you also didn't speak Italian, and now you are really good. |
| Melissa: Grazie, lo ha detto anche la nonna. |
| Marco: Thank you, grandmother also said so. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Marco: Melissa got very useful gifts! |
| Consuelo: "Sì," especially the gift voucher for the beautician. |
| Marco: Girls like these kinds of presents. I should keep that in mind. |
| Consuelo: A massage in a beauty salon can really be a good idea for a gift! |
| Marco: And what about the banana guard? |
| Consuelo: That's useful as well! Especially for those used to eating bananas often. I think I'd need one! |
| Marco: Good to know; now we know what to give you for your birthday! |
| Consuelo: Hey, but my birthday is in six months! |
| Marco: "Lo so, lo so." "I know!" Eh eh! |
| Consuelo: The "buono omaggio" would be better though. |
| Marco: I knew it! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Marco: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Consuelo: certo [natural native speed] |
| Marco: certainly, sure |
| Consuelo: certo [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: certo [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: lettera [natural native speed] |
| Marco: letter |
| Consuelo: lettera [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: lettera [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: buono omaggio [natural native speed] |
| Marco: gift voucher |
| Consuelo: buono omaggio [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: buono omaggio [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: estetista [natural native speed] |
| Marco: beautician |
| Consuelo: estetista [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: estetista [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: plastica [natural native speed] |
| Marco: plastic |
| Consuelo: plastica [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: plastica [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: ammaccare [natural native speed] |
| Marco: to bruise |
| Consuelo: ammaccare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: ammaccare [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: frutta [natural native speed] |
| Marco: fruit |
| Consuelo: frutta [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: frutta [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Consuelo: nonna [natural native speed] |
| Marco: grandmother |
| Consuelo: nonna [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Consuelo: nonna [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Marco: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Marco: Consuelo, what expression are we studying today? |
| Consuelo: Today we're studying the expression "sempre ben accetto." |
| Marco: "Always welcome." |
| Consuelo: "Accetto" with a double "-c" and a double "-t" is the past participle of the verb "accettare." |
| Marco: "To accept." So the literal translation should be "well accepted." |
| Consuelo: Yes, "welcome" is "benvenuto," but in cases like today's conversation, it is preferred to use "ben accetto." |
| Marco: For example? |
| Consuelo: "Un nuovo amico è sempre ben accetto." |
| Marco: "A new friend is always welcome." |
| Consuelo: "I complimenti sono sempre ben accetti." |
| Marco: "Compliments are always welcome." |
| Consuelo: What if something is "unwelcome," Marco? |
| Marco: Oh, that should be "male accetto." |
| Consuelo: True, but we don't use "male accetto" that much. |
| Marco: No? |
| Consuelo: We say "non è bene accetto." For example, "Un vicino di casa rumoroso non è mai ben accetto." |
| Marco: Ah, okay, "A loud neighbor is never welcome." So true! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Consuelo: Let's take a look at today's grammar point. |
| Marco: The "imperfetto" tense is a past tense used to describe habitual actions and states of being in the past. |
| Consuelo: In English, it corresponds to "used to," "would," or "was + -ing." |
| Marco: "Imperfetto" is a highly regular tense, and it is pretty easy to form. |
| Consuelo: You just have to drop the "-re" of the infinitive and add the same set of endings to verbs of all the three conjugations. The endings are "-vo," "-vi," "-va," "-vamo," "-vate," and "-vano." |
| Marco: I repeat, you add the same endings for "-are," "-ere," and "-ire" verbs. So in the dialogue, we had the verb "to speak." |
| Consuelo: "Parlare." "Io parla-vo." |
| Marco: "I spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Tu parlavi." |
| Marco: "You spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Lui, lei parlava." |
| Marco: "He, she, it spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Noi parlavamo." |
| Marco: "We spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Voi parlavate." |
| Marco: "You spoke." |
| Consuelo: "Loro parlavano." |
| Marco: "They spoke." In the next lesson, we'll explain in detail the different usages for "imperfetto." For the moment, though, let's just hear some examples using this tense. |
| Consuelo: In today's conversation, Melissa said, "Quando stavo in America non mangiavo quasi mai la frutta." |
| Marco: "When I was in the United States, I barely ate fruit." |
| Consuelo: "Mentre la mamma preparava la cena io facevo i compiti." |
| Marco: "While Mom was preparing dinner, I was doing my homework." |
| Consuelo: "I miei amici non leggevano fumetti." |
| Marco: "My friends didn't read comics." |
| Consuelo: "Quando ero bambina guardavo sempre i cartoni animati." |
| Marco: "When I was a child, I always used to watch cartoons." |
| Consuelo: "Ero" is the "imperfetto" of the verb "essere." |
| Marco: Please look up at the grammar section of the lesson notes to find out the entire conjugation for this verb. |
| Consuelo: Only "essere" and a few more verbs are irregular at the "imperfetto." |
| Marco: What are the other irregular verbs? |
| Consuelo: The verbs "bere," "dire," and "fare" have irregular stems in the "imperfetto." |
| Marco: For example? |
| Consuelo: For "bere," meaning "to drink," the "imperfetto" is "io bev-evo." |
| Marco: "I drank." |
| Consuelo: For the verb "dire," meaning "to say," it is "io dic-evo." |
| Marco: "I said." |
| Consuelo: The same is true for the verb "fare," which means "to do." It is "io fac-evo." |
| Marco: "I did." |
| Consuelo: Please remember to look at the lesson notes. |
| Marco: And keep practicing conjugating verbs at the "imperfetto" tense. |
| Consuelo: As we already mentioned, we'll cover all the different uses for this tense in the next lesson. |
Outro |
| Marco: That just about does it for today. |
| Consuelo: Listeners, can you understand Italian TV shows, movies or songs? |
| Marco: How about friends and loved ones? conversations in Italian? |
| Consuelo: If you want to know what's going on, we have a tool to help. |
| Marco: Line-by-line audio. |
| Consuelo: Listen to the lesson conversations Line-By-Line, and learn to understand natural Italian fast! |
| Marco: It's simple really. |
| Consuelo: With a click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation. |
| Marco: Listen again and again, and tune your ear to natural Italian. |
| Consuelo: Rapidly understand natural Italian with this powerful tool. |
| Marco: Find this feature on the lesson page under Premium Member resources at ItalianPod101.com. |
Comments
HideTi piacciono le banane?
Hi Donna!
Grazie per il tuo messaggio! 😊 It's great to see you practicing Italian. Here are some corrections for clarity:
1️⃣ "Cuando gli miei figlie erano bambini, mangiavano le banane per colazone."
✅ "Quando le mie figlie erano bambine, mangiavano le banane per colazione."
2️⃣ "Cuando gli miei figlie era bambini, parlavano dei banane per colazone."
✅ "Quando le mie figlie erano bambine, parlavano delle banane per colazione."
Key fixes:
"Cuando" → "Quando"
"gli miei figlie" → "le mie figlie"
"bambini" → "bambine" (for daughters)
"era" → "erano" (plural)
"dei banane" → "delle banane"
"colazone" → "colazione" (correct spelling)
Great effort! Keep practicing, and let us know if you have any questions. 😊
Best regards,
Team ItalianPod101.com
Cuando gli miei figlie erano bambini, mangiavano le banane per colazone.
Cuando gli miei figlie era bambini, parlavano dei banane per colazone. ( I have hardly every tried to write in Italian, scusi.
Ciao Gill!
È fantastico che ti piacciano le banane gialle! 🍌 (It's fantastic that you like yellow bananas!)
Sono un ottimo spuntino dolce e salutare. (They are a great sweet and healthy snack.)
Se hai domande sulla lingua italiana o vuoi migliorare la tua grammatica, siamo qui per aiutarti. (If you have questions about the Italian language or want to improve your grammar, we are here to help.)😄
Have a great day!
Grazie,
Team ItalianPod101.com
Si mi piacciono le banane gialle - a volte le mangio come dolce.
Ciao efi abel,
thanks for your question!
Although the two words are very similar and some people may use either of them, the most correct to use in this context would be "salutare".
salutare = good for your health
sano = in good health (usually referred to a living being)
Hope this helps!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
"La frutta è salutare e piena di vitamine e minerali."
o "La frutta è sana e piena di vitamine e minerali." Qual è correto?
Hi Stephen,
thanks for your question.
yes, "assai" and "molto" are interchangeable adverbs.
A presto
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao!
Mi piacionno assai le banane!
'Assai' e 'molto' are interchangable here, vero?
Grazie!
Hi EME,
thanks for posting!
With "banane" you should say "mi piacciono", because it's a plural word.
And it should be "deliziose" with a final E, because it's a feminine plural.
A presto!
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Ciao,
Mi piace le banane. Loro sono davvero deliziosi!
Hi Pam,
"molti latticini" is what you should say for "much dairy". Other than that, good job!
Grazie per il tuo commento.
Let us know if you have any questions.
Valentina
Team ItalianPod101.com
Si. Non posso mangiare molto latteria, ma mi piace gelato. Ne uso per faire gelato senza latte.
I hope I wrote: Yes, I am not able to eat much dairy, but I like ice cream. I use them to make ice cream without milk.
Buongiorno EA,
Le banane sono molto nutrienti! 😄
Bananas are very nutritious!
Ofelia
Team ItalianPod101.com
Quando ero bambino, mangiavo sempre le banane. 😁
Si, ne piacciono. Yes i like them.
Qundo sono piccolo aveviamo un po' negozio che vendeve cose di tutti giorni.
When I was small, we had a small store that was selling things of everyday uses.